A powerful solar flare sparked on an
Earth-facing section of the sun. A
subsequent coronal mass ejection is
expected to reach our planet later in the
week, possibly causing disruptions of
communication and power grids.
The flare was unleashed by the sun on
Wednesday and was estimated at X1.6,
putting it in the strongest ‘extreme’ class
of solar flares. It was launched from a
sunspot called Active Region 2158 and was
caught on camera by NASA’s Solar
Dynamics Observatory spacecraft, reports
Space.com. The same region produced a
smaller flare a day before that.
The flare was accompanied by the release
of superhot plasma, a coronal mass
ejection, with the cloud expected to reach
Earth later on Friday. Luckily, most of it
is expected to pass north of Earth,
causing a relatively week solar storm.
Power grids may experience some
fluctuations, as the plasma would affect
the planetary magnetic field, but it poses
little danger either to anyone down here
or to crew members of the International
Space Station.
"We're not scared of this one," Tom
Berger, director of the Space Weather
Prediction Center in Boulder, Colorado
told AP.
On the bonus side, the space weather
events may trigger colorful aurora
borealis in regions usually too far from
the North Pole to produce them, which is
good news for enthusiasts.
The frequency and intensity of solar
flares depends on the phase of the 11-
year solar cycle. The sun is currently close
to the peak of Cycle 24. But our star was
relatively quiet this cycle, with the
maximum phase measured in the weakest
in about 100 years.
The Wednesday flare was strong, but far
from being the strongest this year. In
February a monster flare was measured at
X4.9. The absolute record in solar flare
recorded was an X28 in November 2003,
while the Carrington Super Flare of 1859,
which fired telegraph systems at the time
and would cause catastrophic damage if it
happened in modern times, is estimated at
well over X40.

Source: http://rt.com/news/186920-solar-storm-earth-flare/

Read about solar flare here
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_flare

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The Earth's magnetic field will deflect it